Kas-pin

Kas-pin is a Finnish martial art that has both weapon and empty-hand techniques.

The history of Kas-pin is not very well known, and what little is known is generally disputed.

Kas-pin has been passed down in the Valkonen family allegedly for 30 generations. Current generation family head is Kaarlo Valkonen, who lives in Hankasalmi and travels to teach his art in seminar format across the country.

Weapons used in Kas-pin are many and varied:

• Knife (Finnish puukko)
• Bear-spear
• Sickle
• Karttu (a club with an approximate length of a baseball bat)
• Sword
• Sotilasvanhus (a doubly curved walking stick, literally old military man)
• Remmi aka Remeli (a belt with a weight at the end)

Kas-pin also includes some rather esoteric and unusual practices, for instance pimeänoppi (using intuition when fighting in complete darkness) and suo-oppi (how to fight on swamp terrain).